Reward

How does John Lewis reward its employees?
The John Lewis Partnership is well known for its extensive employee benefits package ranging from their annual bonus, to ticket subsidies, pensions to paid holidays; their large range of rewards appeal to everyone. The John Lewis Partnership offer all of these benefits to all of their employees. This guarantees that they are treating all of their employees equally; whether they work full or part time.

Pay
John Lewis base their basic pay on the current market rate for the selected job. On top of their basic rate, John Lewis offer all staff members performance related pay. Employees get their performance reviewed once or twice a year and their pay is adjusted according to their performance. This means that employees of John Lewis get pay that relates to their performance within the business. (John Lewis, n.d.)

For example, if an employee at John Lewis works really hard and contributes to the business regularly then at their annual pay review they will be able to get paid a higher wage due to their high contribution. This review also gives employees the chance to fully discuss the pay decision.

This annual pay review ensures that all employees are treated fairly compared to their contribution to the business. The annual pay review also ensures quality because you are paid according to the effort and work you put into the business. If you work hard and contribute a lot to the business, your pay increases.

Bonus
The John Lewis partnership give all their employees; both part and full time, a bonus once a year. This annual bonus is a portion of the profits that gets given to employees as a percentage of their annual pay and is based on the success of the partnership businesses. (John Lewis, n.d.)

John Lewis offer this bonus to all of their employees; whether they work full or part time. This ensures that they are treating all of their employees the same and fairly. The bonus is offered as a percentage of the employees pay to ensure that the bonus is paid out fairly; if you work more, the higher your bonus. This promotes both fairness and equality.

Pension
John Lewis offer a final salary pension scheme for employees who have at least 3 years service. The contribution section of the partnerships pension scheme is available for employees that have less than 3 years service. This means that all employees have the chance to receive a pension once they retire. (John Lewis, n.d.)

John Lewis offers all its partners with more than 3 years service a final salary pension scheme without requiring a contribution from the employee. By offering it to every partner with more than 3 years service, John Lewis is promoting fairness because all partners get the opportunity to have a final salary pension scheme. If John Lewis only gave the opportunity to some groups of employees then this could be seen as unfair.

Discount
Every employee of the John Lewis partnership is entitled to a discount from both John Lewis and Waitrose after 3 months service. This promotes fairness in the workplace as all employees are entitled to the discount scheme; if only some employees were eligible for the discount scheme then it could seem unfair to the employees who dont receive the discount. (John Lewis, n.d.)

Ticket Subsidies
John Lewis offers their employees 50 per cent off their tickets for various shows and events. This subsidy on tickets is available to both full and part time employees of the John Lewis partnership. This also promotes fairness as all employees are eligible for the ticket subsidies supplied by John Lewis. (John Lewis, n.d.)

John Lewis offers ALL of its employees the same rewards. Both part and full time staff receive the same benefits package. This promotes equality within the business and ensures that it is used throughout the business. If John Lewis was to split its employees into groups and then offer different rewards to different groups, then employees may see this as unfair.

Chief Executives
Chief executives tend to receive large bonuses irrespectively of how well their business has performed. Below I have written out the arguments for and against Chief executives receiving large bonuses.

For

Against

A chief executive of a business could perform really well, but this could be cancelled out by external factors affecting the performance of a business such as the financial climate. This means that the business could still under perform even though the chief executive has worked really hard to try and maintain the performance of the business. The chief executive may have put in a lot of extra time into the business to make sure its performance isn't affected as much.

If a business under performs; their finance will be tight and they should not spend large amounts of money giving bonuses to their chief executives.

Bibliography
John Lewis (n.d.) Benefits [online]. WaitroseJobs. Available from: http://www.waitrosejobs.com/your-career/benefits.htm [Accessed: 10th April 2012].